One single mum, shit loads of caffeine, not enough £ or time

Skeanie Shoes For Kids Loafer Review

September 11, 2012

Shoes, shoes, shoes – not matter what age us girls are shoes will always be one of those purchses that bring excitement. I still remember my first every pair of proper shoes. A pair of patent red Mary Jane shoes that became known as my Dorothy Shoes.

I had first heard about Skeanie shoes from a fellow mummy blogger (who is also a guru of cloth nappies – visit @PetitMew on twitter she’s really rather funny) and fell in love with their shoes, in particular the red Mary Jane shoes that of course sparked my memories above. As tempted as I was to choose these for my review piece I opted for these lovely cream loafer style shoes as they would be great for late summer and autumn for Roo and look fab with jeans and skirts.

Skeanie shoes are different from other shoes for babies and toddlers in that all Skeanie shoes and boots are hand-crafted from high quality super soft eco-leather, designed to nurture and protect little feet. All products are also Fair Trade which is a nice feature as many of us mum’s are careful about the footprint of the products we buy on the environment.

The Infant Range Soft Soled Baby Shoes are made of a soft, high quality genuine leather upper to allow baby’s tiny feet to breathe and grow naturally. The suede sole will provide superior grip whilst crawling or walking. The Junior Rubber Soled Shoes have been designed for walkers. The footwear in our Junior range feature our innovative flexible rubber sole. Since it’s launch Skeanie has won much acclaim from mums, podiatrists and paediatricians and is the PREFERRED PROVIDER of the AUSTRALIAN PODIATRY ASSOCIATION (NSW). Podiatrists and paediatricians around the world have united to recommend Skeanie’s beautiful soft soled shoes for babies, toddlers and young children.

What I loved about the Skeanie loafers were that they are handmade from super soft eco-leather and incorporate SKEANIE’s Flex-ease™ elasticated collar design. This means that as your child’s foot grows so does the shoe with them, and as the price of kids shoes is pretty similar to buying a pair for myself this means longevity and more value for money.

The cream leather was gorgeous, not a milky white cream but a gorgeous buttermilk colour which was warm and went with lots of different outfits. I particularly loved the softness of the leather compared to other high street leather shoes which are sometimes too hard for Roo’s delicate feet. I loved the contrast stitching and the welted toe at the front to protect the shoe from all that running, jumping and energetic toddler activity that Roo was bound to throw at them.

We immediately took the shoes for an outing to the zoo and with the weather being a glorious day I chose not to put socks on Roo and see just how soft the shoes were (taking a spare pair of sandals just in case). We did an awful lot of walking across some fairly stony ground but the shoes held up well and even when Roo started climbing trees the flexible rubber sole stood up well to the trials of tree climbing and running around on the grass.

Despite being worn for over 7 hours, Roo didn’t have any problems all with the shoes on her feet and there were no blisters or rubbing at the end of the day. In fact she commented on how comfy her shoes had been.

The Skeanie loafers I chose retail at just over £34 and I think these are excellent value for money. Whilst they are not a cheap pair of shoes, I personally wouldn’t buy cheap shoes for Roo’s feet as I believe that when they are young it is important that their shoes are proper size and width fitting, with the quality and attention to detail and clever features like the elasticated back these are shoes that will last.

If like me you have a budding fashionista in the ranks the lovely people at Skeanie have kindly offered a pair of shoes to one lucky winner of my Skeanie shoes competition. You can choose any pair of shoes from their current range.